Alternate Perceptions Magazine, January 2026
Planning For Your Next Year
By: Stan Prachniak
The New Year is here, and with it comes another opportunity for you to assess where you are on your life’s journey and choose where you want the next year to take you. Now is a great time to reflect on any progress you have made and countless experiences you have had over the last 12 months. Consider any goals or plans you made, whether you accomplished or completed them, and if there is anything you would have done differently. Utilize what you discover in this assessment to help you develop your plans and goals for this year.
You get to choose what you will do in the next 12 months. There are numerous things in your life that you have control of, and these are the things you should focus on when making a plan and setting goals for your life over the next year. Who you associate with, your hobbies and activities, what you eat and drink, and how you present yourself are just some examples of things you might consider when you begin creating your path for 2026.
A lot of people start the year with great intentions of improving themselves in their life in one way or another but fall short on following through with the necessary actions to make lasting change. In the past, I have mentioned the most common goal of weight loss as a New Year’s resolution, but there are countless other resolutions that fall by the wayside as the year progresses. One of the main things that failed resolutions have in common is that the people who make them do not have a plan for success. In order to succeed at keeping a resolution, a person has to go further than just defining a goal.
For example, saying that you want to be a better person is just the first of many steps that it will take to actually become a better person. You have to define what a “better person” means to you. What are the things that will make you a better person? How will you make these things a part of your everyday life? How will you hold yourself accountable? These are just a few questions that you must answer that will help you start to create a plan to succeed in becoming what you perceive as being a better person.
No matter what your goals and aspirations for this year may be, you should focus on controlling what you can control and let the rest go. Create a plan for success based on the things that you can do every step of the way until you accomplish your goal.
Freedom To Change offers a way for you set and achieve goals, so that you may become the best version of yourself. For more information on the Freedom To Change materials, visit www.freedom2change.org.
